"Swamp Thing" Cancelled at DC Universe after 1 Season
by Nellie Andreeva
June 6, 2019


The DC digital service, DC Universe, will not be picking up a second season of "Swamp Thing", its drama series based on the DC characters created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, according to sources.

The series, which premiered on May 31, hailed from James Wan’s Atomic Monster in association with Warner Bros. Television.

https://deadline.com/2019/06/swamp-thing-canceled-dc-universe-1-season-1202628103/

Swamp Thing was not canceled due to a North Carolina tax break error (https://deadline.com/2019/06/swamp-thing-cancellation-coverage-muddied-by-tall-tales-of-tax-snafus-1202629052/)

When DC Universe abruptly canceled Swamp Thing on Thursday, six days after its premiere, Movies.com reporter Joel Golson tweeted that the show was axed because North Carolina's $40 million tax rebate was reduced (https://twitter.com/gholson/status/1136654411399389186) to "something like $14 million" due to a paperwork error. Turns out that number was wrong. "The unexpected result seemed to demand an unusual cause, and Gholson’s tweet provided it," says Deadline's Geoff Boucher. He contacted the North Film Office and learned that the $40 million Golson mentioned "exceeds the maximum payment per season for any production (which is $12 million), but it also exceeds the NC Film Office’s entire annual budget ($31 million). Very specific contracts lock every detail of the deal in place in advance of filming, so a blind-side surprise (which Gholson describes) is an especially unlikely scenario."

Why Swamp Thing was suddenly canceled: "Insiders believed that they had a dud on their hands" (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/swamp-thing-inside-sudden-cancellation-as-dc-universes-role-warnermedia-a-mystery-1217592)

The DC Universe series' abrupt cancelation after six days has left many people scratching their heads. But Warner Bros. TV's trimming of the Season 1 order from 13 to 10 (https://hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/swamp-thing-order-cut-as-dc-universes-role-warnermedia-streaming-unclear-1202680) episodes on April 17 was a sign that the studio wasn't impressed with Swamp Thing. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg, "despite promising reviews (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/swamp_thing/s01), insiders believed that they had a dud on their hands and, rather than pull the plug on the show and lose millions already invested with nothing to show for it ... the studio opted instead to complete work on the series and use it to bolster the library content on the DC Universe platform that serves as a value-add to its massive digital comic book library." She adds that "the timing of the cancellation was spurred by the studio's decision to bypass paying millions to store the show's physical sets in North Carolina," but the cancelation had nothing to do with tax incentives. Now there is speculation over whether the cancelation is a sign of DC Universe's future (https://www.businessinsider.com/why-dc-universes-swamp-thing-was-canceled-after-great-reviews-2019-6) with WarnerMedia set to launch its own streaming service.

The CW Acquires "Swamp Thing"
by Matt Webb Mitovich
May 11, 2020


"Swamp Thing" has found himself a new swimming hole over at The CW.

The home of the Arrowverse announced on Monday that it has acquired the DC Universe streaming service’s one-and-done "Swamp Thing" comic book adaptation, which wrapped its 10-episode run back in August.

No timeslot was announced.

https://tvline.com/2020/05/11/the-cw-acquires-swamp-thing-tell-me-a-story/

The CW announced that one-and-done DC Universe drama "Swamp Thing" will launch on Tuesday, October 6th.

https://tvline.com/2020/08/17/supernatural-season-15-final-episodes-premiere-return-date-cw/